Medicines can be delivered in the shape or form of a pill, caplet or tablet. These pills or tablets provide a dosage of medicine that can be administered to the patient. Oftentimes the amount contained in the tablet is more than is required for a patient and in order to get the proper dosage it is convenient to split the tablet in half or even quarters. Oftentimes the need arises to cut the pills in halves or even quarters. Increasingly, in order to save money, the patient buys a pill of higher strength and cuts them to reduce the cost. Those pharmacies which supply medications to nursing homes and similar institutions may also be involved in cutting a large number of pills. To achieve this, a variety of pill cutters have been provided, almost all are designed to cut a single pill. Some of these are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,474,525; 7,275,671; 7,000,815; 5,118,021 and U.S. design Pat. 467664. Each of these pill cutter or pill splitter devices has a limitation as it can handle only one pill at a time. In U.S. design 305960 a two-pill compartment is provided on a hinged surface.
When a patient needs to cut a plurality of pills or more than one pill, very few devices are available. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,344 a multi-pill cutter is described which accomplishes the objective of allowing a number of pills to be cut simultaneously. In order to achieve this, a resilient pad has been put in a container; the pad has a plurality of holes in it to accept pills of a particular size. This pad holds the pills directly above a plurality of cutting blades; as the top cover which includes a second solid resilient pad is closed, the pills are pushed against a blade and are split. This advantageously enables a large number of pills to be simultaneously cut in half. As shown in this prior art patent, approximately 30 pills of an elongated shape can be cut. A disadvantage of this design is that to provide different sizes, different pads have to be provided with different hole sizes. Therefore, the device is limited to one particular size pill. As further illustrated, the resilient pad on the top cover must press down on the pill in such a fashion that each pill is cut; in order to accomplish this in such a large base the pressure has to be uniformly applied such that one does not push on one side or the other of the container or top lid in such a fashion that the load is not uniform and therefore pills at one end of the device are not cut through.
Accordingly, while this device achieves the goal of cutting simultaneously as many as 30 pills, it does so in such a fashion that it is limited to one particular size per cut and further by the fact that it can only cut the pills in half. This device is further limited by the fact that it requires a rather strong uniform pressure to achieve a desired breaking of all the pills.
In still another embodiment described in US publication 2009/0031872 an automatic pill cutter is illustrated wherein large supplies of pills can be cut automatically which enables the dispensing of large numbers of pills to be achieved. The drawback of this particular automated device is likely expensive and is ideally suited mainly for a pharmaceutical company as opposed to an individual patient or pharmacy.
Another prior art device, U.S. Pat. No. 8,550,319; of Dr. Raghuprasad is designed to load pills in a removable nest. Yet another pill cutter is on the market to cut multiple pills in a single row up to 10 pills, if care is taken to align properly. This manufacturer or distributor is called Cibolo Press, LLC of Houston Tex.
To overcome these drawbacks of cutting pills to achieve a reduced dosage for a patient, the present invention provides a means of cutting a large number of pills simultaneously, while also being configured to accommodate a variety of different sized pills such that a variety of pill sizes can be cut simultaneously to achieve half dosages.